November 27 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On whether he saw improvements in execution between the Islanders and Blackhawks games:
We were playing different-type teams. We’re playing some teams now or we had played teams that play a neutral zone where they just line three or four guys up. You’ve pretty much got to play a rim, get-it-in game against those teams. What those teams try and do is score on the rush and then stand still and take away the neutral zone. It can be a frustrating way to play against. We have to be a little sharper in terms of executing against those types of teams. [Reporter: But overall, happy with everything you were hoping to see yesterday?] Yeah, of course I am. Hey, that’s what I said last night – you guys asked – we’ve had to win in a lot of different ways because you’re playing different types of teams. We’re not venturing far from giving up much, and we’re scoring timely goals.

On whether teams are challenging for more goaltender interference reviews now:
Well, if that’s goalie interference, then they don’t want any goals scored. You’re going to have to figure out how to win nothing-nothing if you don’t want [any] goals scored. Do you really think that Chicago challenged that last night because they thought they were going to disallow it, or did they just think ‘it’s the first shift, let’s just change momentum?’ That’s what they tried to do. They thought the same as we did. [Reporter: When they first started doing the challenge, a lot of people were saying that some teams were just using it as a time out, basically.] It was a momentum time out last night, for sure. [Reporter: Did you see what happened in Anaheim-San Jose? Garbutt scores on a play, and then they review it, and then San Jose challenges it. It was about 10 minutes between actual plays. It was incredible. It just dragged on.] Yeah. You know, if they’re going to take that goal away, then every time somebody gets touched in the crease then it should be a penalty. That’s the direction we’re going in. We’re good with that, but they’re not going to have any goals.

On Tom Gilbert’s return to the lineup:
I thought he struggled with the pace. [Reporter: Is that an effect of being off?] It shouldn’t be. He should be well-rested and ready to go.

On what stood out about the pace of Saturday night’s game:
Probably that both teams are capable of playing that way, but they had a lot of young guys in the lineup. If you look at it, they had a lot of players, what did they have seven guys that hadn’t played a game in Staples Center, so they were wired up and ready to go. It’s got nothing to do with the day before. They were wired up and ready to go, and you could see it with the energy that they played with, and obviously put Panarin and Kane on top of that. We had a lot of young guys that, two things, that were coming off games in Chicago – we talked about the energy in the United Center, we had some young players that were not ready for that, clearly, so it was a good challenge for them last night to see if they can step up and play at that pace.